This lecture presents the latest results of the PALaEoScot project, a research initiative from the University of Aberdeen centred on the use of archaeo-ecological approaches to explore the low visibility archaeology of Late Pleistocene Scotland and its recolonisation as glaciers retreated. The latest evidence for Scotland’s Ice Age people will be explored, along with their continental connections, the landscapes they encountered, and the fearsome beasts they shared their world with.

This lecture was part of the Edinburgh Science Festival 2026.

Professor Kate Britton FSAScot began her archaeological career in 2002 at Durham University, where she studied Archaeology (BSc), specialising in prehistory, bioarchaeology and palaeodietary reconstruction. She then moved on to University of Reading in 2005 to study for a NERC-funded MSc degree in Geoarchaeology.

It was at Reading that Kate began to incorporate the stable isotope analysis of animal and human remains into her research. In 2006 she returned to Durham to start a PhD in Bioarchaeology, again receiving sponsorship from NERC. In 2007 she joined the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, initially as a doctoral candidate, and after finishing her thesis, as a post-doctoral research scientist and DAAD Junior Scholarship holder.

Kate was appointed Lecturer in Archaeological Science in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in 2010, becoming Senior Lecturer in 2016, and Head of Department in 2020. Kate was made Professor (Personal Chair) in 2021.